cbelcher

Under footnote 6 - the XEGS keyboard connector has 15 pins, not 9. Good table!

Finally made up my own case for one of the through hole units - I wanted it to look somewhere between the styling of the 800 and the XLs. Designed a faceplate in Tinkercad to fit the OKW case, and used an external antenna.

Would you mind posting the UF2 for this (and if you try subsequent) versions? I had a lot of trouble with his XEP80 code too. Thank you!

@bfollowell Mine worked fine on a purple clone as described in the instructions. Maybe you have a USB-C cable that is just for charging and doesn’t have the data pins? And would still like to see you come up to the Indy Vintage Computer Club - there is a meeting this weekend!

Would love to see it open sourced - I like to build my own hardware. Version 1 was easy if you could find the parts... Thanks!

Looking forward to this!

Hey! You're welcome to come down to the Indy Vintage Computer Club meeting which occurs monthly and you can get help there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC Check in with me if you think you can go and I can let you know if I am going and will bring some stuff to help you troubleshoot. Chris

All of the versions of AtariWriter80 I could find would drive the XEP80Pico - but it seems to initialize the screen margins to 32 and 71 - so I couldn't find a usable one.

@Matej PM sent

I went back looking at where my problem was with the first build - and it seems that your uf2 file is the working one and it differs in a hex editor from the one posted on the Polish forum (which I cannot get to work). Did you build it yourself or where did you find it?

I did make a PCB to carry the components shown in the earlier schematic. Seemed easier than the circuit origami to fit it in a plug. Message me if you are interested in bare boards like item #1

The resistors and the level shifter circuit are under the Pico on the Topside. My plan was to have the Pico socketed so it could go into other projects if needed. I will have some of my reworked boards if anyone is interested. I will have pin headers on them to solve the not plated through problem and a bodge wire to fix a pin misassignment.

So - it was my first time using JLCPCB's assembly service and I thought I was making it easier using their EasyEDA software... Made one mistake myself and then found out the Pi Pico in their library had a footprint - WITHOUT plated through holes. But with a little board rework, I would call it success! I need to clean up the mistakes before I consider posting the board files somewhere.

Got it working! A thing of beauty. Think it was your drivers, although I noted the schematic picture had pin 38 of the pico tied to ground and the creator wrote a text file using pin 3 - so I wired that up too. There are many many ground pins on the Pico - doubt it is the issue. Great picture and simple build.

Yeah, I got those demos to work off the pico previously - so pretty sure the hdmi side of the wiring works and the pico is alive. Thanks for the files - looking forward to troubleshooting with them!

Which xep80 driver and DOS are you using on the Atari side? I’ve done something wrong on the Atari side of things apparently. Will go back from the joystick port the the level shifter to the Pico using your driver and UF2 to eliminate those as an issue thanks!

Oh that makes sense! So the result is really "Unable" rather than "Unknown" Great utility - thank you!

I've tried SimCheck 1.5 burned to a cart and on several original systems - 600xl 800xl 65xe and 130xe it always calls the BASIC unknown. They all have original ROMs. Is this a known issue?

Built up the hardware, and was able to get HDMI video out using other examples from the GitHub library - so I think the HDMI end of the Pico circuit works fine. I used the precompiled uf2 files from the polish forum for the XEP-80 emulation using the very easy loading method mentioned above. However, when I plug into joystick pin 2 (and I tried 1) and start the ALTXEP80.SYS driver the Atari screen blanks (as it should), I see activity on Atari pins 1 and 2 and at the Pi end (the RX and TX), but I get no HDMI video out. The Atari seems to know the Pico is there - if I'm not plugged into port 2 it complains no device detected. I have 5V and ground where I think I should on the Pico. Hmmm - maybe I should cut the 5V from the Atari and power everything from the USB on the Pico. Will be glad to hear how everyone else's experiments go.

Thanks! I missed them on the other forum! Was so involved in trying to build them from source. With Eben Upton saying this, I wonder if we could get around the level shifting. Eben Upton says: September 25, 2022 at 4:16 pm Note: the pads themselves are 5V tolerant for input, just not 5V5 tolerant, which is what we’d need them to be to put “5V tolerant” in the data sheet. (Hypothetical) future designs will fix this. Note also: they’re not (and will never be) 5V *failsafe*, so don’t subject them to 5V without first powering VDDIO.

Any luck with this @Jfcatari ? It looks really easy and cheap from the hardware standpoint! But the software is killing me. The thread of it on AtariOnline.pl is here: https://atarionline.pl/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=6921&page=1 From that forum and the link to YouTube - I suspect @MarKit here may be the creator and I have messaged him. Otherwise, would someone who hangs out on the Polish forums like @ZuluGula be willing to ask if he could post a build of this for us to try out?

Yes! Any plans to release source files so we can try to print them?

Yes, I tried on Windows, MacOS, and Ubuntu - had to install the development toolchain for the Pico and the dependencies that are listed in the root of this repository. All the other examples built, but it looks like Marcin added this in this particular fork without a makefile. Adafruit has a tutorial going over the installation of the toolchain and using the master branch of this repository https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dvi-breakout-board/raspberry-pi-pico-demo-code

Anyone else been able to build the .UF2 for this? I'd like to give it a try but have been able to build all the other examples except the xep80. Looks like it was built by Marcin Kita - who I can find only named in a demo on atarionline.pl - but I can't find contact info. Seems like a really simple implementation - pretty much a Pi Pico, HDMI breakout and level shifter - the easiest implementation imaginable. https://github.com/maaakit/PicoDVI/tree/xep80/software/apps/xep80/doc He also posted video:

Our club has been going quite strong for the last many years and just wanted to put out another invite for people in Indiana and surrounding states. They are usually the second Saturday of the month from 9-2 at the Lebanon Public library - info is mostly in a Facebook group if you look up Indy Vintage Computer Club Also - we are having our first expo in April: https://indyclassic.org/ if you want to come hang with the retro crowd - computers and consoles are welcome - come check it out!